Joho the Blog
An Entry from the Archives

I know longer comment on politics. You are either in, or you're out--principle of excluded middle. I ask why moan? I'll just embrace the only truth I know, and accept everything like the broad-bossomed earth does the quenching rain, because there will always be insects among us, too. I have no ambitions. Let those who have them, pursue them--that's all. When the time comes to make sense of things, the world will follow.

We're OK with torture as long as it's *judicially approved* (see Alan Dershowitz's "torture warrant" advocacy)

I guess we could appeal to their good nature and just *ask* them which of our kids they were planning on killing next.

Peter, so you're ok with Americans torturing Iraqi prisoners? I just want to make sure I'm understanding you.

A related post on my blog.

David: As with nuclear weaponry, torture is a dangerous thing that has a place in the arsenal of self-defense. But like a nuke, it should be handled only by those with the skill, intellect, and maturity to use it wisely.

Want a rule of thumb for that? Let's say that we go through the catalog of offenses alledged against prison guards in Iraq, and let's pick out every act of torture that would be used against an insurgent in an occupied territory... *if* the insurgent in question were pale-skinned and English-speaking.

The one or two acts that make that cut are okay by me. The other 99% is just bigotry and stupidity run amok.

The Bill of Rights was written by people who understood that not only bad guys and "other people" end up in trouble. (Thoreau, MLK, and Nelson Mandela all spent time in jail.) I am upset and shocked by the stories coming out of Abu Ghraib--and more so by people who argue that this isn't really shocking and liberals are just griping as a way to attack George Bush. If we just quit griping about this shocking stuff, aren't we condoning it? And if we condone it, won't abuse of prisoners become the accepted practice? No, I think we should all be yelling a lot about this.

If you condone any form of torture, then don't bitch the next time your soldiers are torn apart and dragged through the streets, a fair dinkum terrorist will not succumb to torture anyway, he/she goes willingly to martyrdom.
You reap what you sow.
Regards
Cannon fodder of the australian Government.

I would say, and I think that most would agree with me, that something along the lines of sleep deprivation doesn't rise to the level of torture. Torture is defined by dictionary.com as "Infliction of severe physical pain as a means of punishment or coercion." I'd say that sleep deprivation doesn't inflict severe physical (or even mental, really) pain...at the most, it's very uncomfortable.